Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Rush (4 January 1746-19 April 1813) was a signer of the US Declaration of Independence, Surgeon General of the Continental Army, and a leader of the American Enlightenment.

Biography
Benjamin Rush was born in Byberry, Pennsylvania in 1746, and he graduated from Princeton University at the age of fourteen before studying in Europe. After his return to the Thirteen Colonies in 1769, he opened a medical practice in Philadelphia and became a professor of chemistry at the College of Philadelphia, publishing the first American textbook on chemistry. He was also active in the Sons of Liberty, becoming a patriot essayist. During the American Revolutionary War, Rush became Surgeon General of the Continental Army, and he was one of the signers of the US Declaration of Independence in 1776. In 1783, he became a staff member at the Pennsylvania Hospital, remaining a member until his death in 1813. From 1797 to 1813, he was also treasurer of the US Mint, and he founded Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, naming it in honor of John Dickinson. He died in 1813.